June hung suspended as ripe fruit. Rains had come. The country was blossoming with a promise of abundant crops. No longer were there breaths of sultry air in shady places. The heavy foliage, fattened by reinvigorated sap and fanned by refreshing breezes, rustled as though it were sprinkling ozone to the ground; and the Colonel complained of exhaustion from the sheer indulgence of joyous deep breathing.
These last two months had brought a settled condition to those at Arden.
At first pleasantly aroused by the advent of Dale, they were again comfortably back in their accustomed grooves, while he, also, found a niche which fitted his cosmos with a fair degree of ease. He was at home with them now, and natural; and--when not absorbed with study--talked freely in a slow magnetic way that compelled listeners. The early reticence had given place to the full sway of an enthusiast, and everyone within his...o...b..t felt the influence of a peculiarly strong attraction.
More and more was he surprising them. Merging from obscurity to the light of action, he had developed into a human dynamo, generating power at a high rate of speed and storing it in the dry cells of his brain.
Brent accused him of consuming so much of the atmosphere that nothing remained; he said the air seemed lifeless after this absorbing student had pa.s.sed. He was perilously near done for, he confided to the Colonel, if Dale"s mental instrument corralled all the energetic thought waves of Arden, and Miss Liz captured the peace and independence. And the old gentleman had laughed like a boy, because the mountaineer was so generously surpa.s.sing Jane"s most sanguine hope.
The happiest laugh of all was from Dale, himself--that low, inaudible movement of the throat wherewith he expressed his gayest moods. He had been turned out in the pasture of his heart"s desire, and was gathering a harvest with feverish hands. Since the first Monday morning after his arrival, when he crept to the schoolhouse at break of day and waited in the opposite thicket with his long rifle to see if Tusk would come again, the mantle of civilization wrapped quickly about him.
In the succeeding days, the mysteries of spelling and other problems flew like chaff before his irresistible energy. He had struck a gait which created wonderment in all. Hours bounded in no way his efforts.
Late afternoons, evenings, and nights, had been devoted to intense study of which he could not tire. Early mornings, before breakfast, had found him poring over a book, and the day"s lessons were recited with unerring accuracy while he dressed.
Since school had closed this zeal did not cease; rather did it grow more ardent as Jane gave him her undivided time by especially directing studies apace with his rapid advancement. As she fed, he devoured--as a ravenous animal would have torn its food--and fiercely demanded more.
From the blind girl he had acquired, with this thirst for knowledge, a tremendous power of concentration; but, to the regret of those about him, had failed utterly to absorb any of her power of self-sacrifice.
That spiritual side--that all important lesson of unselfishness--had never reached him. He was as blind to it as she was to the light of day, and in spite of all Jane could do, or the Colonel could do, his nature closed tighter about the one idea of self-advancement.
For a week after his memorable first day upon the survey, he had rushed to Brent"s room each morning at dawn to get the party started; and Brent had good-naturedly submitted. But now the engineer suddenly balked, flatly refusing to take him out again. Miss Liz arose in her wrath, but he told her that he would not risk another day of starvation should this fanatic choose to throw the lunch away--and it was too much work going every day, anyhow. But, the fact of the matter was, Dale had become a serious handicap. He was not content to act as pole-man, or carry the chain. He could have done either of these well enough, because Brent had taught two of the brighter negroes whom he regularly took along. No, Dale must be continually at the transit, looking through it, changing its direction, asking a thousand irrelevant questions, and demoralizing the entire force. So after one week of struggle, Brent told him that he should not come any more until he had at least learned enough to realize how little he knew. It was a disappointment to Jane, but she persuaded Miss Liz not to press the issue, deciding that it might be better in the long run for Dale to proceed more systematically in fundamental things and lay his foundation with greater care.
In the freshness of this June morning he was back again in the library, bent over the pages of a book, and the room seemed quieter for his intensity. Outside, on the shady porch, the Colonel showed indications of reading, but in reality his eyes had slyly turned to the lawn where Zack and Bip were in a heated argument over the respective merits of horseflesh.
An hour before, this st.u.r.dy six-year-old heir apparent to the house of Hart, had arrived on his Shetland pony to see Grandfather May--a usual weekly procedure. Along with him, as was also the invariable custom, ponderous Aunt Timmie drove in her buggy--"her" buggy by adoption after it had been discarded by "de white folks." Whenever she climbed into this moth-eaten vehicle, whose wheels pointed outward and inward all at the same time, she never permitted the child to forget that it was her own sweet willingness thus to risk her life which made these excursions possible. She was in the big house now, inspecting every surface and crevice for a particle of dust, contemptuously sniffing and soliloquizing:
"De place is jest nach.e.l.ly gwine to rack an" ruin! Zack ain" got no moh sense "bout takin" cyare of a house den a rag-dawl!"
The Shetland pony, meanwhile, was standing at a safe distance from Uncle Zack"s mule, looking very wicked indeed with its long forelock hanging frowsily between its eyes, and seeming to have comprehended some of the slanders which this old darky--making a great pretense of being angry--had uttered. To the side, and ready to champion her little friend, stood Mesmie, daughter of Bradford, the overseer, with one bare foot pressing nervously on the instep of its mate, and her fingers twisting the end of her long, golden plait. This was apprehension, not embarra.s.sment. The old negro"s pretended anger invariably deceived this little girl--as it frequently puzzled the boy.
"Dar ain" no use talkin"," Uncle Zack stamped the ground. "I"se been waitin" on de May fam"ly fer up"ards of a hund"ed yeahs, an" dis am de fu"st time any of "em done "sult me!"
There was a pause while Bip looked at him with wide, serious eyes, and the Colonel from his secluded vantage point silently chuckled.
"I didn"t mean to insult you, Uncle Zack," the little boy explained. "I only said that Daniel, here, couldn"t have anything to do with such a mis"rable mule. Daniel"s a thoroughbred!"
"Thurerbred!" Zack scornfully repeated. "Jes" heah dat! Why, he ain" big "nough to be no kind o" bred! He ain" got "nough blood in "im to call it real breedin"!"
The boy"s face flushed. "He"s by Shadeland Wildon," he cried, "and out of Hurstbourne Trinket! I"d like to see you find any pony stock better"n that!"
Uncle Zack appeared to ponder over this. As a matter of fact, he had once told Bip this same thing in these very words. Now he temporized by squinting up at the sun.
"An" what"s more," the little fellow hotly declared, "they"re both registered way back to the war--an" lots before that! Grandfather says if he didn"t know Daniel was Daniel, he"d think he was Shadeland Wildon every time I rode him in here--"cause he"s got his sire"s chestnut an"
white markin"s to a dot, an" his size to a hair! Now what you got to say "bout breedin"!"
""Pears to me," the old fellow soliloquized, still squinting upward, ""twon"t be long "foh lunch time. Didn" I heah somefin "bout gwine down whar de Willer-de-Wispies lives at?"
"Oh, yes," Bip cried, his anger pa.s.sing like a bird shadow. "But, Uncle Zack, you"ve got to ride a horse! I can"t have Daniel learnin" laziness from that old mule!"
"Laziness!" the old man exclaimed. Then, all at once, he seemed to be watching something in the trees. "I "member onct," he began in a ruminating fashion, "when a li"l boy come up to me an" sez: "Unc Zack,"
he sez, "which is de oldes", ladies or gemmen?""
He watched the boy with a downward glance from the corner of his eye, but the little fellow maintained a dignified composure. How often did he wish Uncle Zack would forget those questions which now seemed to him a hundred times more infantile by the old man"s interpretation! How many times had Uncle Zack prevailed in having his own way by merely referring to them! Now he continued:
"An" onct, when I wuz settin" in mah doh, dis same li"l man come pokin"
"long an" sez, sez he: "Unc Zack, how-c.u.m you kin see yoh knuckles when yoh fist is shet up tight, an" cyarn" see "em when yoh han"s out straight?""
"That"s one thing you never did tell me," the boy accusingly cried. "You couldn"t!"
"I couldn"?" he asked in pained surprise. "Does you mean I couldn"? Why, ain" you "shamed of yohse"f talkin" dat a-way to ole Zack! I could a-tol" you, spry"s yoh please, but it warn"t good fer li"l boys jes"
den."
"Then tell me now!" Bip challenged.
"How ole is you, honey?" came the irrelevant question.
"I"ll be seven next time," he answered.
"Seven nex" time!" The wrinkled face became more wrinkled as he looked out over the fields and began to shake with laughter. "Seven nex" time!
What you know "bout dat!"
"What"s funny, Uncle Zack?"
"Jes" dat, dat"s all. Come "long, now, an" we"ll git de mule ready!"
"Ain"t you going to tell me "bout my knuckles?" the little boy asked, as they moved to the horse-block where, in deep humility, an old saddle rested.
"Shucks! Dat ain" no fun!" Zack contemptuously a.s.serted. "Knuckles is cu"ious things, knuckles is; an" dar ain" no sense gittin" all riled up "bout "em, no way. Didn" I never tell you "bout de bantam hen dat got her knuckles scyared up wid de water snake?"
"No, you didn"t! But tell me first "bout mine!" The little boy was trotting to keep up now, and the old man lengthened his strides.
"An" didn" I never tell you "bout de chicken hawk as busted his knuckles all up tryin" to fly off wid de weather-vane down on de stable dar?"
"Oh, no, Uncle Zack! But tell me "bout mine, first!"
The old negro stopped stock still and looked down with a frown.
"You"se de mos" pestiferistes" pusson on dis heah place!" Then, catching an inspiration, he asked: "Why does you swaller when you"se chawin" a piece of cake?"
"I don"t know;--just do. I reckon!"
"Dar now, Mesmie, ain" he a smart li"l man?" the old fellow chuckled.
"Dat"s de ve"y reason--you jes" do! An" dat"s "zackly what de knuckles does--dey jes" do! Now, since we done relieve ourse"ves on dat pint, le"s move "long!"
Both seemed to have forgotten the discussion on thoroughbreds, but the old negro still pretended to be haughty; and now, slowly approaching the mule which narrowly watched from the corner of his eye, he casually observed:
"De ve"y idee of sayin" mah mule"s lazy! Why, he kin nacherly out-run de life outen a li"l sawed-off dumplin" lak one I sees standin" "round heah!"
This was the touch of spark to powder. The boy thrust his hand deep into his pocket, brought it forth and opened it, then stepped quickly forward:
"I"ll bet you a nickel--an" here it is--that Daniel an" I can beat you to the pike an" back!"